OMG! How is it Tuesday already?? This week is already flying by. I did not forget about the other recipes I need to write about. Hang in there, they’re on their way!!
The Journey
Recipe #14 Parmesan Chicken
This recipe can be found in Family Style.
One of the recipes I made for Saturday dinner was parmesan chicken. But, I have a confession to make. I bought the wrong cheese! Instead, I bought a combination of grated Pecorino Romano NOT Parmesan. So, since I kind of messed up the title ingredient, by review won’t be too long.
This recipe is very simple to make since it is essentially fried chicken cutlets. However, the addition of cheese to the bread crumbs is what really sets it apart. And if I’m being honest, I think the Pecorino Romano cheese added even better flavor than the parmesan would have.
I also decided not to serve this recipe with the recommended salads greens and lemon vinaigrette. But, it is still worth trying. It’s a simple meal than can be any night of the week and can easily accommodate and please a large group of friends.
Did I make sides for this? Yes, yes I did! I made two basic recipes: mashed potatoes and a separate carrot dish. Those reviews are coming tomorrow!
Happy November, by the way!
Tired…
In addition to the three Ina recipes I cooked for dinner, I also made two loaves of bread. These were NOT Ina recipes, so I won’t go into detail. But, all I can say is….I’m exhausted!!
Reviews of the recipes I made tonight will be posting starting tomorrow.
Stay tuned! Happy Halloween!
Saturday Cookin’
This week I will be making three recipes!
The main course will be Parmesan Chicken from Family Style.
I will be serving it with two side dishes. For a vegetable, I’ll be preparing Orange-Honey Glazed Carrots (At Home) and for a starch, I’ll be making Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes (At Home).
I may modify some of the recipes a little bit to cut down on the ingredients needed to be purchased. For example, I will only be using the amount of buttermilk I have left from last week (about a half cup) and not buying anymore. So I’ll be short a bit for the recipe, but I also plan to not make the full amount the recipe yields.
Pics (hopefully!) and reviews to come!!
Review of “Barefoot Contessa At Home”
Garten’s fifth cookbook begins what I call “Quintessential Ina.” This was around the time I discovered and fell in love with her cooking show. And I think her best recipes stem from the next few books. The tagline “everyday recipes you’ll make over and over again” rings true for this book since Ina had finally settled into her target audience: untrained, home cooks.
Continue reading “Review of “Barefoot Contessa At Home””Living in a Dreary World
Today is a rainy, cold, end-of-October day here in Connecticut. We’ve barely seen the sun over the last two weeks and they are expecting snow (!) tomorrow. I’m not really a fan of snow, but thankfully I am off from work that day.
Sadly, the time got away from me this week, so the next cookbook review will be delayed until later this evening.
I am still thinking of things to make this weekend. I am leaning towards a chicken recipe and some type of side…possibly vegetable or maybe risotto! But definitely, no dessert this week! I had to throw out roughly half the cake I made last Friday. No one was eating it and I already had more than my fair share.
This Week’s Recipes
This week, I will be cooking on Saturday instead of Friday. I still do not know what I plan to make. This week, I’m going to try to do more than one recipe. Again, I probably will not be doing dessert. However, I am toying with doing an appetizer recipe this week!
More to come, stay tuned!
“The most overrated tool: a pasta maker. Why make it when you can buy it? It’s a lot of work!”
Snickerdoodle Cake
This recipe is NOT from Ina Garten, but I wanted to show off what I made because I was really pleased with myself and how it turned out! If interested, this recipe came from Sally’s Baking Addiction. The photos are mine, however. (Hers are much, much better!)
Snickerdoodle Cake is my new love! Three layers of cake with snickerdoodle pieces spread throughout, amazing cinnamon buttercream frosting, and just all around happy dancing!
Since this is not an Ina recipe, I will NOT be going into detail about the baking process. But…I do recommend you try this cake for yourself. It was so worth the effort!
Recipe #13: Weeknight Bolognese
Featured in How Easy Is That?
In the headnotes to the recipe, Ina says (and I’m paraphrasing) that everyone needs a quick, easy, and flavorful sauce recipe. And after trying her Weeknight Bolognese I think I’ve found it!
This recipe was super simple. It reminded me of the “old Ina” (which is the Ina I knew and loved before I started this blog) meaning that I always found her recipes to be easy. This sauce recipe came together in a little over 30 minutes but it tastes as though it cooked all day. It also seems adaptable enough to increase the amount made or to omit the beef to make a true marinara-style sauce.
The flavor in this recipe is the real hidden secret.
There are so many layers of flavor in this sauce. I never thought nutmeg in an Italian sauce would taste so good. That is just one of many different flavors. Since I did not have crushed red pepper flakes, I did a quick Google search to try to find something else. I substituted chili powder and I think it only intensified the flavor. Red pepper flakes aside, this recipes uses a lot of black pepper. Which seems to be a theme in Ina’s savory recipes.
Add in some heavy cream, oregano, basil leaves, and red wine and this sauce will surely be a winner for you as well!
I think this one needs to go on the Favorites Lists!
